Where do authors get their story ideas?

Jules Verne (1828-1905) is often cited as
the "father of science fiction," a distinction sometimes shared
by H.G. Wells (1866-1946). Biographers and scholars of Verne have pointed
out that he was not the first person to describe voyages to the moon or travel
under the sea aboard a submarine. However, his stories were the first to achieve
international acclaim and popularity. This same popularity served to popularize
the ideas within the books as well.

Verne's
"Vingt milles lieues sous les mers" was first published in
the Magasin d'education et de recreation as a magazine serial (20 Mar
1869 - 20 Jun 1870). It was published in two volumes within Verne's Voyages
Extraordinares in 1870 and 1871. The story was translated by Lewis Mercier
and published in England and the United States in late-November 1872. The
date on the title pages for these editions was 1873. It was one of several
stories which became the inspiration to science fiction writers, including
Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863; 1869), Journey to the Centre
of the Earth (1864; 1874), From the Earth to the Moon
(1865, 1870; 1874), and Around the World in Eighty Days(1873;
1873).

So successful were these stories, that they
made a permanent mark on the genre. For example, few authors could write about
a submarine voyage without closely paralleling Verne's Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Seas (George M. Smith, 1873), even down to the obligatory
giant squid attack. Some of these imitations were embarrassingly close to
Verne's story about Captain Nemo's Nautilus.

One early example of this type of imitation
was written by Bracebridge Hemyng (1841-1901), "Dick Lightheart; or,
the Scapegrace at Sea," which was published in serial form in Young
Men of Great Britain (260-?:1873) by Edwin J. Brett. It was immediately
pirated in Boys of America (6-12: Feb 1874 - Aug 1874), a magazine
published by Frank Leslie (1821-1880) that was closely patterned after Brett's
Boys of England, in which most of Hemyng's stories first appeared.
American and British copies of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
have been seen with 1872 inscriptions. Thus when the Dick Lightheart story
began to appear in 1873, it followed the English-language publication of Verne's
story by mere months.

The
Hemyng story was reprinted several times including a version without illustrations
in Frank Tousey's Five Cent Wide Awake Library (85-86: 22 Mar
1879 - 24 Mar 1879; 1257-1258: 6 1896 - 13 Mar 1896). It was published in
book form as The Scapegrace at Sea. The British version was advertised
in Boys of England (11 Jul 1874). It was published in the United
States by the American News Company.

The Dick Lightheart story, like many of Hemyng's
popular Jack Harkaway stories, is part of a continuing narrative with only
the slightest amount of transitional text to connect one story to the next.
Thus, little explanation is given, initially, about how Dick Lightheart,his
chum, Harry Messiter, and servant, Teddy are on Captain Simpson's ship, the
Indiana. However, we soon learn that they were picked up and the Captain
and his officers intend to impress Dick Lightheart and his friends into maritime
service. To this, Dick resists in his usual fashion. He wins a fight against
one member of the crew and earns their respect. In a later incident, Dick
stops the captain from flogging one of the regular crew. Captain Simpson turns
his rage towards our hero. When he plans to flog Dick Lightheart, the crew
intercedes on his behalf.

As
this incident concludes, a strange sail is spotted on the horizon. This turns
out to be the remains of a vessel with its only survivor, Professor Crawley
Crab, who is the "Secretary to the Society for Exploration of the Unknown
Parts of the World." He demands food and fresh clothing while he tells
how his ship, the General Johnstone, was destroyed by a sea monster.
Naturally, this conversation does not go unnoticed by the crew. When the monster
appears, none of the crew, save our heroes, will go in the small boat with
Professor Crab to attempt to harpoon it. Harry Messiter takes the place of
Verne's Ned Land as harpoonist, although this role is merely perfunctory.
Dick Lightheart's other companion, Teddy, who is analogous to Professor Arronax's
servant, Conseil, seems to be present solely to complain and state "I
know I'm only an odd boy but I've got feelings" every few dozen paragraphs.

From this point, Hemyng's story simply lifts
the adventure elements of Verne's story, while adding some dime novel plot
formulas. The monster attacks and sinks the Indiana. Professor Crab
and our heroes are knocked out of their small boat into the water. They eventually
regroup on the back of the sea monster which has iron plates and rivets hewn
by hand. They soon realize that this is a man-made submarine boat. Figuring
the occupants to be pirates, they are uncertain as to whether they should
alert the attention of the men in the vessel. However, a quick survey of the
situation suggests that they have little choice. If the craft were to submerge,
they would surely drown. Although they try to kick the plate with their feet,
there is no response from the occupants of the submarine. After several hours
of uncertainty, a hatch opens and an unseen person from the submarine drags
in each member of the party, one at a time. They are locked in a small room.

After
a long delay, they are fed upon dinner plates with a large letter "N"
and the motto "Dead to the World" inscribed upon them. In time they
meet the captain who listens to their story repeated in several languages
without response. Only on a later visit does Captain Nemo reveal that he speaks
English as well as the other languages used. He explains that the survivors
of the shipwreck can never be released, thus the submarine Enigma will
become their prison.

Captain Nemo of the Hemyng story, like his Verne
counterpart, is as enigmatic as the name of his vessel. He also experiences
the same manic-depressive mood swings characterized by the captain of the
Nautilus. In Verne's story, the motto on the dinner plate is "Mobilis
in Mobili" ("movable in a movable element"). The crew of
the Enigma uses special rifles to hunt and kill undersea game. Although
these are not described in the same detail as the ones in Verne's story, they
are clearly the same devices. Both stories include an underwater burial; the
captives attempted escape on to an island which is filled with cannibals who
are repelled by electricity; and an excursion into a oyster bed with a giant
pearl in a place known only to Captain Nemo. There is even a trip through
a submarine tunnel between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea in both versions.
The Enigma is also trapped in ice near the South Pole for a time. Of
course, no submarine story would be complete without an attack by a giant
squid or octopus.

As previously stated, this story contains all
of the adventure elements of the Verne narrative in a shameless plagiarization.
There is also a subtext added about why Hemyng's Captain Nemo has abandoned
the civilized world. As a soldier for the South in the American Civil War,
his fiancée was convinced of his death by another suitor. She eventually
marries him and leads an unhappy xistence on his ship, the Belle of New
Orleans. Nemo, whose real name is Harold Duggard, has sworn vengance and
sinks several ships throughout the course of the story. Strangely, none of
the prisoners, save Dick Lightheart, notice each time the Enigma collides
with and sinks a ship. The last portion of the story describes their escape
and rescue by Captain Crawley (Hemyng must have been fond of this name) Vipond
of the Belle of New Orleans, Duggard's target. They also meet the object
of Duggard's misery, Adele. Dick Lightheart warns Captain Vipond about Duggard
which makes him a nervous man indeed. In fact, only because the machinery
broke on the Enigma did they have the slightest reprieve. The remaining
chapters describe how Dick Lightheart and his friends are landed in Africa,
presumably leading to the next story, "Dick Lightheart Around the World."

To simply summarize "Dick Lightheart at
Sea" reveals how this story was based on a bare-bones version of the
Verne story with Hemyng's style of characterizations. The Hemyng version also
includes several examples of pronounced racism. When the group tries to escape,
they kill one of Captain Nemo's crew, one of Duggard's former slaves, who
speaks in dialect. When Lightheart learns what they have done, Teddy replies
"it was only a nigger."

As was typical in the dime novel industry, this
story was itself stolen by another writer. The theft in this case is nearly
word for word with the only changes being the character and vessel names.
The beginning and ending of this story are different and the characterizations
softened but the essential elements are identical to the Hemyng story already
stolen from Verne.

This story was published in
Young Sports of America (10 Aug 1895 - 14 Sep 1895) as "The
Wizard of the Deep; or, the Search for the Million Dollar Pearl" by "Theodore
Edison." The story was published in hardcover as The Wizard of
the Sea by the Mershon Company in 1900. It was reprinted by Chatterton-Peck
around 1907 and later by A.L. Burt. The hardcover editions were published
using the "Roy Rockwood" pseudonym.

Roy Rockwood was one of the principal pseudonyms
used by Edward Stratemeyer (1862-1930) and his Stratemeyer Syndicate, an organization
established in 1905 which hired writers to complete manuscripts based upon
story outlines created by Stratemeyer. Through this organization, Stratemeyer
created some of the most popular series of novels for children including the
Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, the Hardy Boys, and Nancy
Drew.

Edward Stratemeyer was born
in Elizabeth, New Jersey on 4 October 1862. As a boy he read the dime novels
and story papers available at the time. The authors who wrote for these publications
were William T. Adams (1822-1897) (as Oliver Optic), Horatio Alger Jr. (1834-1899),
Charles A. Fosdick (1842-1915) (as Harry Castlemon), James Otis Kaler (1848-1912)
(as James Otis), and many others.

In early interviews, Stratemeyer remarked how
he aspired to write like Horatio Alger; what he did not reveal was
that for several years since Alger's death, he had written as Alger
as well. Stratemeyer wrote eleven Alger "completions" which were
supposedly based upon notes left by Alger. Although the first one or two of
these stories may have been composed in this fashion, the later volumes seem
to be wholly Stratemeyer's work. Stratemeyer also wrote one volume as "Oliver
Optic" when William&nbspT. Adams died before completing the Blue
and Grey series, published by Lee&nbsp& Shepard, as planned.

One story about Stratemeyer told how he received
a small toy printing press as a boy upon which he would print poetry and short
stories to give to friends and family. When he was twenty, he tried to start
his own story paper, Our American Boys, which apparently had
only a single issue in January 1883. The surviving copy, held by the University
of Oregon at Eugene, is arranged as a quarto with eight pages of text and
no illustrations. The departments and stories in this first issue were probably
written entirely by him. Some of the advertisements offer typesetting services.

A few years later, in 1889, Stratemeyer sold his first long
story, "Victor Horton's Idea" to Golden Days for $75.
Upon hearing the amount they paid, his father, Henry Julius Stratemeyer, assented
the Edward should write more of these stories. Stratemeyer certainly seemed
to take this advice to heart. He wrote many stories that were published as
dime novels and were serialized in story papers of the time.

By 1893, he was working as the editor of Good News,
a Street & Smith publication, contributing many of the stories published
during his reign in the editor's chair. Here he learned many of the writing,
editing, and publishing techniques that would be used in his Stratemeyer Syndicate
a decade later. For example, writers were expected to develop a story of a
given length in a short time period after being given only a title and the
basics of the characters and plot. For this, the writer would be paid a flat
sum in exchange for all rights to the story. The publishers would risk that
the story sold and reap the rewards if it sold well.

In fact, it was a common practice to have a given story published
many times over a number of years. Thus, if a writer or group of writers contributing
to a dime novel series needed a break from their frenetic pace, older stories
would be inserted into the publishing schedule, sometimes with different titles.
As you can imagine, this causes many problems for the bibliographers of this
type of literature.

Another common practice, especially before 1891, was to steal
stories from England, Germany, and France and publish them here in the United
States, in English. The international copyright agreement that Charles Dickens
(1812-1870) fought for during most of his later life would not appear until
twenty years after his death. Thus, pre-1891 historical novels by G.A.(1832-1902)
were routinely pirated by American book publishers.

In a similar fashion, Frank Leslie's Boys of America
would contain essentially the same material as Edwin J. Brett's Boys
of England after a short delay. At one point around 1873, Leslie persuaded
Bracebridge Hemyng to move to the United States and write exclusively for
him. However, "Dick Lightheart; or, the Scapegrace at Sea" which
had its first installment in Boys of America February 1874 was
originally published in Young Men of Great Britain (issue 260-?:
1873), another Edwin J. Brett paper.

Since Hemyng was perceived as being a British writer and
most of his stories were stolen from their naitive England, it is not very
surprising that publishers, like Frank Tousey, reprinted "Dick Lightheart
at Sea" in 1896. This theft of literary property went in both directions.
Samuel L. Clemens (1835-1910) (Mark Twain) often had his stories published
first in England to secure non-citizen copyright and prevent piracy of his
stories as fast as the pages could be printed here in the United States.

Most of the dime novels and many of the story papers had
weekly publication schedules. The demands of the publishing schedule required
writers to compose stories of approximately 60,000 words in a short length
of time. If an author was a fast enough writer, he could provide nearly all
of the stories in a given dime novel series. An example of this is (William)
Gilbert Patten (1866-1945) who wrote sports, school, and travel stories about
Frank Merriwell and family for Street & Smith's Tip Top Weekly
as "Burt L. Standish."

Many of the writers for these publications were also voracious
readers both of fiction in the genre and of newspapers. In fact, it was very
common for a writer of dime novels and story papers to write for newspapers
as well. A common practice of fiction writers was to take a popular news story
and fictionalize it with only the slightest embellishment. In some cases,
a writer simply lifted the description in a news story and inserted it into
his story.

For example, Edward Stratemeyer wrote dime novel stories
for the New York Five Cent Library (published by Street &
Smith) about a boxer, Gentleman Jack (between Nov 1892 and Nov 1893), who
was largely based on Gentleman Jim Corbett, a boxer with a short term of fame.
An eminent Stratemeyer scholar, Dr. Deidre Johnson, has recently uncovered
evidence that descriptions of the fights were simply lifted from local newspaper
accounts. Stratemeyer also wrote several boxing stories for Young Sports
of America (1895), some of which are about Gentleman Jim Corbett.

In another example, a forthcoming article in the Dime
Novel Round-Up will outline a Samuel Hopkins Adams (1871-1958) novel
plagiarized by Gilbert Patten (1866-1945).

Weldon J. Cobb (1850-1922), a Chicago newspaperman,
real estate agent, and dime novel author simply rewrote a newspaper version
of H.G. Wells' War of The Worlds (Pearson's Magazine,
1897; Heinemann, 1898) in a story that became "AtWith Mars" (Golden
Hours, Sep-Nov 1897). One of Cobb's new elements when he stole the
story was the Martian attack on the U.S., rather than England. Cobb wrote
several other stories with Mars as a theme. In 1905, Cobb began to write for
the Stratemeyer Syndicate. He wrote early volumes in the Dave Fearless
series, Boys of Business series, and Ralph of the Railroad series.

Edward Stratemeyer tended to use certain pseudonyms to identify
his personal writing and other names for stories which he owned as a literary
agent. Thus, stories he wrote were published under his own name, and "Captain
Ralph Bonehill" and "Arthur M. Winfield" while stories he purchased
from other writers, when published in hardcover, might use names like "Roy
Rockwood" or "Allen Chapman." Obviously, there were several
early stories written by Stratemeyer published under the Chapman and Rockwood
names; however, these names are usually associated with hardcover series books
which were contracted "works for hire" from his Syndicate.

An observant reader can learn to detect the style of a given
writer and note his choice of spelling, favorite character names and adverbs
and phrases. One scholar, Dr. John T. Dizer Jr., who has spent most of his
life reading works by Stratemeyer and his Syndicate has suggested that "The
Wizard of the Deep" (Young Sports of America, #11-16: 10
Aug 1895 - 14 Sep 1895) and its hardcover cousin, The Wizard of the
Sea (Mershon, 1900), does not appear to be Stratemeyer's writing.
"Were it not for Stratemeyer's known connection with Young Sports
of America and the `Rockwood' name, it would be difficult to identify
this book as his writing" (Tom Swift & Co., p. 135).
Curiously, the story was not listed among titles that were transferred from
Frank J. Earll, the publisher of Young Sports of America, to
Stratemeyer in 1896. Nevertheless, Stratemeyer owned the story and must assume
some of the responsibility for this plagiarism. Now it seems clear that the
unpaid writer of this story was Bracebridge Hemyng.

There is no evidence to suggest that Stratemeyer read Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (George M. Hill, 1873), although it
would have been published when he was eleven years old. However, the Verne
story was not widely adopted as a juvenile story until later. It is also unclear
if he read "Dick Lightheart at Sea" as a boy. However a brief comparison
between the Hemyng and the Rockwood stories quickly shows that whoever composed
the Wizard of the Sea had a copy of "Dick Lightheart at
Sea" in hand.

The first six and one-half chapters
(38 pages) of The Wizard of the Sea are essentially a reprint
of a story Stratemeyer published in Bright Days, a story
paper that he owned and edited, called "The Schoolboy Cadets; or, Fun
and Mystery at Washington Hall" (Bright Days, #6-10:
5 Sep 1896 - 3 Oct 1896) under the Roy Rockwood pseudonym. As the title implies,
this short story is about several boys who attend a small military academy.
A few years later, Stratemeyer would create his Rover Boys series (1899-1926)
of school stories under his Arthur M. Winfield personal pseudonym.

After an abrupt transition at the beginning of page 39, the
story begins to merge with the Hemyng story. [On this page, text not highlighted
was taken direct from Hemyng word-for-word.] The main character, Mont Folsom,
his chum Carl Barnaby, and servant John "Stump" Stumpton were on
a small boat that was run down by an outgoing ship. This ship picks them up
but is unwilling to drop them off at any port.

Since this book is a direct copy of the Hemyng story, each
character in the Hemyng story has a corresponding character in the Rockwood
version. Thus, Dick Lightheart becomes Mont Folsom, Harry Messiter becomes
Carl Barnaby, and Teddy becomes Stump. Similarly, the ship that picks them
up is called the Indiana run by Captain Simpson in the Hemyng story
while in the Rockwood story it is Captain Savage and the Comet.

After the flogging incident,
Doctor Homer Woodle, who is also the "Secretary to the Society for Exploration
of the Unknown Parts of the World," appears; just like Professor Crawley
Crab in the Hemyng story. In the Rockwood story, Captain Nemo is replaced
by Captain Vindex and the submarine is called the Searcher rather than
the Enigma or the Nautilus.

The Rockwood story is considerably streamlined from the Hemyng.
The Civil War subplot is absent. For this reason, there is no mention made
of the motto or emblem on the dinner plates. Stump has fewer scenes where
he complains "I know I'm only an odd boy but...."

Most of the major events described in the Hemyng story are
included in the Rockwood version. After the Searcher emerges from the
submarine tunnel into the Mediterranean Sea, our heroes plan their escape.
When they are off the coast of Cyprus, an explosion destroys the Searcher
and everyone aboard is presumed dead. Our heroes return to civilization aboard
a small boat.

How much of Wizard of the Sea was written by Stratemeyer?

With the exception of the first 38 pages, which is a retelling
of "The School Boy Cadets" and some pages before and after the Hemyng
story, only about 1% of the material in the Rockwood story was added or changed
by Stratemeyer.

The nature of the changes is interesting and serves to illustrate
Stratemeyer's probable authorship of them. For example, Stratemeyer restructured
many of Hemyng's short, single-sentence paragraphs into complex sentences
and longer paragraphs with the addition of simple conjunctions. He also restructures
the story into chapters with cliff hanger endings. Most of Stratemeyer's text
appears at the beginning or ending of a chapter. [Some pages had no new material
by Stratemeyer.] Stratemeyer only used approximately 75% of the submarine
portion of the Hemyng story, in turn stolen from Jules Verne. Stratemeyer's
version sticks to the adventure elements and reads quickly.

Stratemeyer
changed textual references which were specifically British to ones with which
American readers could relate. A mention of the Crystal Palace in London (Hemyng
16) was changed to Coney Island (Rockwood 157). Captain Nemo who "appeared
to be an Englishman" in Hemyng's story (Hemyng 7) became Captain Vindex,
an "American" (Rockwood 81). "American oysters stewed in whale's
milk" (Hemyng 9) are described as simply "oysters stewed in whale's
milk" (Rockwood 96).

At one point in the story, the characters are marvelling
about the progress of technology:

"... He has invented a singular ship which can go
under the sea at will, but why not? Was not the invention of steam engines
laughed at, as well as the invention of gas? Who, a hundred years ago, would
have believed in the electric telegraph, by means of which we can send a
message to the end of the earth in a minute?" (Hemyng 9)

To the above, Stratemeyer adds:

"Very true," replied Mont. "And don't forget
the telephone, and the submarine boat the government is trying to build."(Rockwood 96)

This addition was part of Stratemeyer's attempt to bring
Hemyng's 1873 story up-to-date. Stratemeyer's version was first published
in 1895. In that same year, Simon Lake (1866-1945) and John Philip Holland
(1840-1914) were competing in a U.S. government competition to develop a submarine
boat for the U.S. Navy. Holland's design and prototype was purchased.

A few years later, Stratemeyer wrote "Holland the Destroyer;
or, America against the world" (Golden Hours 669-676: 24
Nov 1900 - 12 Jan 1901) by Hal Harkaway, a pseudonym similar to Bracebridge
Hemyng's main character, Jack Harkaway. The story was reprinted in hardcover
as The Young Naval Captain; or, the War of all Nations (Thompson
& Thomas, 1902) and as Oscar the Naval Cadet; or, Under the Sea
(M.A.&nbspDonohue, circa 1915). In the story, a young inventor builds
a revolutionary new submarine, called the Holland X, since it is the
tenth submarine in the United States' fleet.

In The Wizard of the Sea, Stratemeyer removed
or changed any references in Hemyng's story to alcohol or games which might
be used for gambling. In Hemyng's version, the prisoner's first meal included:
"no bread and wine, but a bottle of water supplied its place." (Hemyng
8) Stratemeyer's characters had "no bread, tea, or coffee ...."
When Dick Lightheart has a private meeting with Captain Nemo, he offers to
play "dominoes or crib" (Hemyng 10) with the captain. This is changed
to "dominoes or checkers" (Rockwood 100) by Stratemeyer. Later in
the book, Hemyng says that the prisoners played "cards, or some game
they liked" (Hemyng 19) while Stratemeyer uses "checkers, dominoes,
or some game they liked" (Rockwood 183). Stratemeyer clearly felt that
checkers or dominoes was more genteel than cards or cribbage.

Finally, Stratemeyer uses the phrase "our hero"
in place of Mont Folsom's name. This phrase is not used by Hemyng. Likewise,
he uses "the Wizard of the Sea" on several occasions when the Hemyng
story simply mentions "the captain" or "Captain Nemo."
Aside from the above changes, Stratemeyer's story is a direct copy of Hemyng's.

In contrast, Hemyng's story does not contain a word-for-word
plagiarism of the Verne text. The appearance of the story in 1873 leaves two
possibilities: either Hemyng read the 1870 French-language text and copied
it, or he had more creativity in his plagiarism when he copied the English
translation of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. Stratemeyer
was not the first to steal Hemyng's story. It was stolen first by Frank Leslie
for his Boys of America (1874) from Edwin J. Brett's Young
Men of Great Brittain (1873). Once in the United States, it
was stolen by Frank Tousey for his Five Cent Wide Awake Library
where it was published twice (1879, 1896). Stratemeyer's version appeared
in 1895, after Frank Tousey's 1879 reprint.

As previously stated, Hemyng's story uses the essential adventure
elements from the Verne original. Stratemeyer copied Hemyng's story directly,
changing only the names of characters, vessels, and locations.

For example, in Verne, the Nautilus merely passes
the island of "Vanikoro ... the islands on which La Perouse had been
lost" (ch. XVIII). In Hemyng "Vanikova" becomes the name of
the island where the party lands and is chased by savages. In Verne, the landing
takes place on the island of Gilboa in chapter XX. In Stratemeyer's version,
the island is called "Malonon" and the French explorer is "Posterri."

Below is a comparison of aspects of the three stories.

Title

Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Seas

"Dick Lightheart;
or, the Scapegrace at Sea"

"The Wizard
of the Deep; or, In Search of the $1,000,000 Pearl"

Author

Jules Verne (1828-1905)

Bracebridge Hemyng
(1841-1901)

Edward Stratemeyer
(1862-1930)

First Publication

French 1869; English
1872

1873

serial 1895; book
1900

Name of Submarine

Nautilus

Enigma

Searcher

Submarine Captain

Capt. Nemo

Capt. Nemo (Harold Duggard)

Capt. Vindex

Main Character

Prof. Pierre Arronax

Dick Lightheart

Mont Folsom

Servant to Main

Consiel

Teddy

John "Stump"
Stumpton

Secondary Character

Ned Land

Harry Messiter

Carl Barnaby

Know-it-all Character

(see main character)*

Prof. Crawley Crab

Dr. Homer Woodle

Ship sunk

Abraham Lincoln

Indiana

Golden Cross

Captain of ship

Admiral Farragut

Capt. Simpson

Capt. Savage

* In Verne, Prof. Arronax is
the main character. In the Hemyng/Stratemeyer version he is charicatured
as the know-it-all character. Arronax becomes the friend of Capt.
Nemo, while the main character befriends the captain of the other
versions.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (George
M. Smith, 1873):

How long I remained buried in this drowsiness, I cannot judge;
but when I woke, the sun seemed sinking towards the horizon.
Captain Nemo had already risen, and I was beginning to stretch
my limbs, when an unexpected apparition brought me briskly to
my feet.

A few steps off, a monstrous sea-spider, about thirty-eight
inches high, was watching me with squinting eyes, ready to spring
upon me. Though my diver's dress was thick enough to defend me
from the bite of this animal, I could not help shuddering with
horror. Conseil and the sailor of the Nautilus awoke at this
moment. Captain Nemo pointed out the hideous crustacean, which
a blow from the butt end of the gun knocked over, and I saw the
horrible claws of the monster writhe in terrible convulsions.
This accident reminded me that other animals more to be feared
might haunt these obscure depths, aginst whose attacks my diving-dress
would not protect me. I had never thought of this before, but
I now resolved to be upon my guardd. Indeed, I thought that this
halt would mark the termination of our walk; but I was mistaken,
for, instead of returning to the Nautilus, Captain Nemo continued
his bold excursion. The ground was still on the incline, its
declivity seemed to be greater, and to be leading us to greater
depths. It must have been about three o'clock when we reached
a narrow valley, between high perpendicular walls, situated about
seventy-five fathoms deep. Thanks to the perfection of our apparatus,
we were forty-five fathoms below the limit which nature seems
to have imposed on man as to his submarine excursions.

I say seventy-five fathoms, though I had no instrument by
which to judge the distance. But I knew that even in the clearest
waters, the solar rays could not penetrate further. And accordingly
the darkness deepened. At ten paces not an object was visible.
I was groping my way, when I suddenly saw a brilliant white light.
Captain Nemo had just put his electric apparatus into use; his
companion did the same, and Conseil and I followed their example.

Verne, Jules. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under
the Seas. (Boston: James R. Osgood, 1873), (Boston: George
M. Smith, 1873). Translated by Lewis Mercier, published 30 Nov
1872. The Osgood and Smith editions show slight variations in
cover design and typesetting of the first signature. They are
considered to be approximately simultaneous. The Osgood edition
is extremely scarce.

"Dick Lightheart; or, the Scapegrace
at Sea"

By the author of Jack Harkaway. "Dick
Lightheart; or, the Scapegrace at Sea." in Young Men
of Great Britain #260-?? (circa 1873). Published by Edwin
J. Brett.

By the author of Jack Harkaway. "Dick
Lightheart; or, the Scapegrace at Sea." in Boys of America
#6-12 (Feb 1874 - Aug 1874). Published by Frank Leslie.

Edison, Theodore. "The Wizard of the
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Rockwood, Roy. The Wizard of the Sea; or,
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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all of the people who
helped me collect the information in this paper: J.Cox, Jack
Dizer, Deidre Johnson, Karen Nelson-Hoyle, my wife, Kimberlee
Lusk Keeline, and especially Gil O'Gara, editor of the Yellowback
Library who wrote an article that first spotted the Hemyng
story as a copy of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Seas. Without all of your help, this paper would
not have been possible.